Portales also achieves his objectives by wielding dictatorial powers, censoring the press, and manipulating elections.

For the next forty years, Chile's armed forces will be distracted from meddling in politics by skirmishes and defensive operations on the southern frontier, although some units will get embroiled in domestic conflicts in 1851 and 1859.

In later years, conservative Chileans will canonize Portales as a symbol of order and progress, exaggerating the importance of one man in that achievement.